AND HOW I HAVE CAUGHT MY FISH 91 



of Scotland, which are said to have become awfully 

 wild because of the same imperfection in their 

 corporal economics. 



I do not really desire to lessen my readers' 

 respect for the opinions of learned professors, unless 

 it be when they have been compelled to give them 

 forth on subjects of which they know nothing before 

 a Select Committee of the House of Lords, which 

 perhaps, nay, probably, knew less. Their Lord- 

 ships, in 1860, desired Professor Ouekett's ideas on 

 the salmon, and he, amid his other judgments, was 

 of opinion that salmon travel some distance along 

 the coast, and probably into deep water, in search 

 of the ova of the echinus or sea-urchin. Professor 

 Huxley disagreed with this view as regards the 

 nature of their sea food, and preferred to believe 

 that it consists chiefly of a numerous class of small 

 creatures entomostracous Crustacea found in 

 semi-solid masses upon the sea's surface. Dr. 

 Knox, on the other hand, considered that their food 

 must consist of the ova of various kinds of star-fish. 

 Put concisely, then, we must imagine a menu for 

 salmon thus ova of sea-urchins, insect soup, and 

 star-fish roe. This would seem to be diet for tooth- 

 less fish, and not for such a robust feeder with such 

 powerful serrated jaw as the salmon has, which, 

 when he seizes your gudgeon or sprat, often makes 

 mince-meat of it. 



However, it matters not much, particularly now, 

 which, if either, of these learned authorities is right 



